Knitting machines, and in particular circular knitting machines, employ knitting instrumentalities to produce the knitted fabric. In a circular knitting machine, a rotating needle cylinder has a multiplicity of vertical grooves in the outer periphery formed by insert pieces which are stationary or fixed. These vertical grooves receive latch needles, intermediate jacks, patterning jacks and possibly other movable knitting instrumentalities for high speed reciprocation. A lubricating oil is sprayed in mist form onto these knitting instrumentalities to ensure smooth and uninterrupted reciprocation.
However, as knitting speed increases, these knitting instrumentalities tend to adhere to the insert pieces causing the lubricating oil to be expelled from the grooves and the movable knitting instrumentalities to move sluggishly. An abnormal load is applied to the knitting instrumentalities, particularly the butts of the latch needles and, if the condition persists, such abnormal loads frequently result in breakage of the knitting instrumentalities. Such breakage may cause a chain reaction of breakage of other knitting instrumentalities or peripheral parts of the knitting machine.
Attempts have been made to solve this problem with some success, but at substantially increased manufacturing costs because of the complicated processes required to produce the knitting instrumentalities. One example of such movable knitting instrumentalities is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No.560-127387 (1985). Such knitting instrumentalities are provided with cutouts on opposite side faces with the cutouts on one face being positioned alternately with the cutouts on the other face. Another example is found in Japanese Utility Model Publication H-43419 (1989) in which the movable knitting instrumentalities are provided with projections on their side faces and bottoms.